License

Zero and Infinity are Fiction

2008/08/27 — grant czerepak

Something has been teasing at my mind as I have been exploring singularites and a term I call “pluralarities” (what a goddamed awkward word). What has occurred to me is this. We live in three dimensional space. There are no such thing as points (zero dimensional objects) or lines (one dimensional objects) or planes (two dimensional objects). They are complete figments of the imagination. What is really happening with a point is x, y and z have a default value of one What is happening with a line is y and z have a default value of one. What is happening with a plane is z has a default value of one. However, the mathematicians are always hurling zeros and infinities in when there is not evidence of one in nature. They make for some great mathematics, but they are terrible physics. And most physicists think too much like mathematicians.

We run into the same mathematical stupidity in relational databases with null values and cardinalities of zero and infinity–total bullshit. In physical reality everything is finite and let me explain how to resolve this.

We have to look at Energy, Mass, Space and Time as three dimensional coordinate systems. None of these coordinate systems ever reach a zero state, they reach an alternate state. Space becomes Mass and Time becomes Energy for example. An beer glass is never empty, in normal circumstances it is either full of beer or full of space. And if you know your physics, space is a thing. Zero is a mathematical and a perceptual trick not a physical reality.

Space, Time, Matter and Energy are three dimensional and finite. They are all constrained between 1 and n not zero and infinity. They present one possible state of ( E x, Ey, Ez , Mx, My Mz, Dx, Dy, Dz, Tx, Ty, Tz ) where all the values are greater than zero.

Zero and Infinity a boon to mathematics, but not to physics.

The Greeks were a lot smarter than you think. Even to the Indians, space was a thing.